WORD Wednesdays

I love words: weird words, long words, obscure words, words that sound good, words that send me to the dictionary. Periodically on Wednesdays I’ll share one. If you’d like to join the fun, see the blog event info here. Or just comment with a favorite of your own!

Here’s one:

noctilucent

DEFINITIONS

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
adj. Luminous at night. Used especially of certain high clouds.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
adj. Shining or glowing at night, especially of very high-altitude clouds that reflect sunlight long after sunset.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Shining by night or in the dark; nuctilucid: as, the noctilucent eyes of a cat.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
adj. shining or glowing by night

Etymology:  ultimately from Latin noct- + lucent-, lucens lucent